Martin Aircraft posts full-year loss

Martin Aircraft posts full-year loss; on track to sell world's first commercial jetpack next year

By Fiona Rotherham

Aug. 28 (BusinessDesk) - Martin Aircraft has reported a annual loss of $5.2 million as it continues developing the world’s first commercial jetpack, due out next year.

The Christchurch-based company raised $28 million in an initial public offering on the Australian Stock Exchange in February, which saw Chinese entrepreneurial investor KuangChi Science become the largest shareholder with 22.7 percent.

The 17-year-old company, which hopes to make first deliveries of its commercial jetpack in the second half of next year, changed its reporting date to year ended June 30 from Dec. 31 as part of the IPO, so no comparison can be made with the previous year. No dividends or bonuses will be paid and the loss per share was 0.02 cents. Martin Aircraft shares are currently trading at 63 Australian cents, above the 60 Australian cents listing price and the 40 Australian cents IPO issue price.

The company reported net cash outflow from operations of $5.39 million and current assets exceed liabilities by $22.5 million. The company has agreed to provide KuangChi Science with convertible notes with a face value of $23 million to provide further liquidity if required. The Chinese investor lent Martin Aircraft a $1.1 million interest free loan last December which will be offset against any subscription of convertible bonds.

Listing fees on the ASX amounted to $426,000 for the year while the total capital raising cost the company $2.78 million.

Chairman Jon Mayson said the “the technical roadmap to a commercialisation milestone” was progressing as outlined in its IPO prospectus. Further detail on progress will be provided in the annual report due out soon.

The jetpack can be flown by a pilot or via remote control and its potential use includes search and rescue, military, recreational, and commercial applications. Based on current testing, the jetpack can to fly for 30 minutes at a speed of up to 74 kilometres an hour at an altitude of 1,000 metres, compared to its nearest competitor with only 30 seconds of flight.

The prospectus indicated first deliveries of a pilotless air vehicle will come in the fourth quarter of 2016 and a personal jetpack in the second quarter of 2017.

In an investor update last month chief executive Peter Coker said it was moving to a lean assembly system to support production of one jetpack per day in a single shift and that it will have by the “final part of 2016 three flying P12 models, two of which will be manned flight capable.”

Coker said the company had advanced from a letter of intent to a memorandum of understanding with US-based Avwatch, with which it is developing air-based, first responder solutions for US government agencies. The MOU is for Martin Aircraft to deliver three manned and three unmanned jetpacks, a simulator, and support to be used for demonstration, as part of the Avwatch capability.

Under a December investment agreement outlined in the prospectus, KuangChi Science and the company set up a new joint venture company, KuangChi Martin Jetpack, in late July. It will sell and distribute jetpack products in Hong Kong and China and undertake advanced research and development on the jetpack following commercialisation.

KuangChi Science and Martin Aircraft own 51 percent and 49 per cent respectively of the Hong Kong listed company after each paying $2 million in share capital. The Chinese investor has an option to sell its joint venture stake to Martin Aircraft at any time in the four and a half years after the IPO in exchange for shares in the listed company.

The joint venture will set up a wholly foreign-owned enterprise in China, apply for early-stage and R&D grants from Chinese authorities, and eventually set up production in China of jetpacks sold there.

Lin Luan was nominated by the Chinese company as a replacement director last week for Martin Aircraft founder Glenn Martin, who resigned in June in a difference of opinion over the company’s commercialisation path. At the time Martin said his dream had been to build a personal jetpack that everyday people could use while the company was increasingly focused on developing an aircraft for emergency response such as police and search and rescue.

The company’s financial results show that Martin, who remains the third largest shareholder with a 15.6 percent stake, down from 15.9 percent at the time of the float, and was paid $10,000 a month for consultancy services in addition to director fees of $46,317.

(BusinessDesk)

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